Jerusalem Bound. Rodney Aist
presentations. While the group experience is a meaningful part of the journey, short-term community has its own set of struggles. Common life requires a commitment to patience, respect, and mutual cooperation. The difficulty of living well together is accentuated by the challenges of the journey from exhaustion to the encounter of foreign cultures. The tardiness of others, the idiosyncratic behavior of fellow pilgrims, and the pursuit of personal interests are additional challenges of group travel. Short-term Christian communities live faithfully together through a covenantal arrangement that honors God, respects the individual, and fosters the group experience while recognizing personal needs and cultural differences. Seeking a balance between intentional community and facilitating community formation in natural, unforced ways, pilgrims live out their calling as a sacred people.
Holy Land pilgrimage raises the larger question of what it means to be a Christian in today’s world. Jerusalem is unrivaled as a place of ecumenical and interreligious gathering, offering pilgrims a unique opportunity to explore issues of Christian identity: what are the defining beliefs and behaviors of the Christian faith, and how is Christian identity shaped by one’s cultural context? Along with the global influx of Christian pilgrims, there are thirteen historical denominations in Jerusalem, primarily of eastern origins. The Holy Land is an encounter with Judaism, past and present, while, to many people’s surprise, the region is a model of Muslim–Christian coexistence. Examining the question of Christian identity, Jerusalem pilgrimage explores our relationship with the religious Other.
Sacred Places
The Jewish festivals occurred at the place of God’s choosing, a concept that likewise appears in the call of Abraham (Gen 12:1) and the binding of Isaac (Gen 22:2). A place is holy by virtue of the fact that we have been called by God to go there, summoned to see something that God will reveal, an act that is both intimate and mysterious. For Jerusalem pilgrims, the Holy Land is sacred for the same reason: it is a divinely determined destination, a place of contemporary revelation.
The Jerusalem temple was ultimately chosen as the festival venue and was considered holy for a number of reasons. The temple was recognized as the dwelling place of God, epitomized by Jesus’ boyhood reference to “my father’s house” (Luke 2:41–49). The image of the house of God evokes the question of divine presence, which is at the heart of pilgrim spirituality: where is God? Is God more present in some places than others? Is God somehow confined or, at least, located by human constructions of holy sites? What is the meaning of a consecrated place? Emphasizing Christ’s presence in the gathered community, the New Testament church largely transcended the idea of sacred places. The Holy Spirit is ubiquitous; God inhabits the world. A temple religion became a table religion, and Christ was recognized in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:30–35). Yet, the idea of a holy site as a dwelling place of God still appeals to Christian experience, and “God is everywhere”/“there are holy places” is a theological tension that fuels the pilgrim quest. Pilgrims seek God’s presence in special places, and personal experience is sometimes at odds with our own theology.17
The temple’s holiness was enhanced by the idea that a significant event had previously occurred there, namely, the binding of Isaac (Gen 22:2). Following God’s instructions, Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, Isaac, before the angel of God intervened, providing him with a sacrificial ram. Identified as Mount Moriah (2 Chr 3:1), the temple site had Abrahamic associations of sacrificial worship. Recalling the previous discussion on monuments, the idea of a sacred place as the setting of a past event is fundamental to the Christian Holy Land: places are holy because special events in the life of Jesus happened there. Moreover, given the divine nature of the incarnation, the holy sites have theophanic connotations: they are meeting points between heaven and earth. Like the temple, certain Christian sites are enhanced by primal narratives. Christians place the tomb of Adam and the binding of Isaac at Calvary. Jesus’ baptism site draws upon the Israelite crossing of the Jordan River and the ministry of Elijah.
Beyond consideration of past events, Judaism views the temple site as a place that is inherently sacred—it was created holy. The temple was the navel of the world, the cosmic center that gave life to all creation, and Judaism envisions the created world as a set of concentric circles of decreasing holiness emanating outwards from the temple: the holy of holies, the temple precincts, the city of Jerusalem, the land of Israel, and the rest of the world. Christians have likewise viewed the places of Christ’s passion in cosmological terms—as places created for a divine purpose—and have associated the Holy Sepulchre with the center of the world. Yet, the tradition is relatively minor: the Christian sites appeal to sacred history rather than divine cosmology.18
The concept of the center of the world introduces a spirituality of power and proximity. The existence of centers implies edges, the elsewhere, and everything in-between. The idea speaks to physical, social, and spiritual location and our accessibility to the holy; it likewise applies to the imbalance of power that characterizes our world. How do we define centers in spiritual, political, and economic terms? Are your religious, cultural, and racial identities defined by their proximity to recognized spheres of power or by distance and separation? Do you live near centers of influence, or are you on the outside looking in? The contemporary Holy Land is a complicated demographical landscape full of centers, borders, and boundaries, while the majority of global Christians lack the means to make a visit. The holy places give pause for reflection upon proximity, distance, access, and isolation. What does Holy Land pilgrimage tell us about power, resources, and authority?
In sum, the temple introduces several concepts of sacred place:
•A place is holy because one has been called by God to go there.
•A holy site is a dwelling place of God.
•A holy place is a venue of ritual worship.
•A sacred place is where something significant took place; it is a place of special memory.
•Some places are inherently sacred; they were created holy.
Pilgrims perceive the world as containing spiritual thresholds, tissue-thin landscapes, and meeting points between heaven and earth, and personal experience can turn any location into a holy place. While Holy Land pilgrimage is not reliant upon a particular idea of sacred space, religious travelers explore how spatial location influences their experience of God, self, and the Other.
Sacred Time
Just as scripture mandated the time and length of the Jewish festivals, Holy Land pilgrimage is a divinely appointed event. Pilgrims travel in God’s time. While the Jewish festivals were seasonal, Christians travel to the Holy Land twelve months a year. The specific dates of group travel are determined by a number of factors that are generally out of the control of the individual pilgrim, but that is precisely the nature of sacred time: it chooses us. Regardless of when we go, to embark on a Holy Land journey is to enter sacred time, leaving ordinary time behind. Pilgrimage is time set aside for a particular purpose; it is a time-based endeavor.
Linked to the agricultural cycles, the Jewish festivals were times of thanksgiving for God’s material blessings and providential care. Jerusalem pilgrimage continues to be a celebration of God’s creation. Modern pilgrims are struck by the flowers, fruits, and fragrances of the land, from almond blossoms to pomegranates. What agricultural seasons, both home and in the Holy Land, correspond with your travels, and how will you mark thanksgiving in the land of the Holy One? What Christian seasons and holy days will occur while you are there? Will visiting certain holy sites have additional meaning due to the liturgical season? Will you or others in your group celebrate a special occasion or mourn a difficult anniversary? What events will occur back home while you are away?
Reenacting Sacred Stories
Commemorating the Hebrews’ flight from Egypt, the Jewish Passover expresses a basic practice of Holy Land pilgrimage: the reenactment of sacred stories (Deut 16:3, 6; see Exod 12:1–28). The Christian holy sites are stations of biblical storytelling, and pilgrimage is the practice of remembering stories of faith. Pilgrims enter the sacred narratives by reading scriptures, observing the sites’ natural features and religious imagery, and engaging in informal practices. As a journey of religious imagination, pilgrims assume the role of various